Category Archives: Nutrilite

ALBANY, N.Y. — Bottles of Walmart-brand echinacea, an herb said to ward off colds, were found to contain no echinacea at all. GNC-brand bottles of St. John’s wort, touted as a cure for depression, held rice, garlic and a tropical houseplant, but not a trace of the herb.

In fact, DNA testing on hundreds of bottles of store-brand herbal supplements sold as treatments for everything from memory loss to prostate trouble found that four out of five contained none of the herbs on the label. Instead, they were packed with cheap fillers such as wheat, rice, beans or houseplants.

Nearly all fish oil supplements marketed in New Zealand contain much less of the brain-boosting omega-3 fatty acids than their labels claim, an eye-opening study has found.

When researchers at the University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute tested 36 different brands of fish oil capsules, just three contained the same concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids as listed on the label.

…

They found that over half had oxidised to a level higher than the recommended limit – and this had nothing to do with the best-before date, price, or country they came from.

You may know that Kurt Warner is two time winner of the NFL Most Valuable Player award, and also winner of a Superbowl MVP award. What you might not know is that in 2010 he won the Bart Starr Award for “outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field and in the community”. While people like Howard Megdal may be clueless about Amway (see my post a couple of days ago!), people like Kurt Warner are not, which is why he’s a spokesperson for Amway’s Nutrilite brand.

I’ve occasionally received questions about whether Amway uses genetically modified organism (GMO) crops in their products, in particular in Nutrilite products. I’m personally not overly concerned by GMO if it’s from a company I trust. In past years “gmo” had a simpler name – farming! We’ve been genetically modifying our food supply for thousands of years, through transplanting and interbreeding of different plants and animals. Now we can just do it faster and in a more controlled situation.

Still, I understand peoples concerns. On the weekend though, there was a surprising article posted in China’s People’s Daily Online – Is Amway Nutrilite protein powder as addictive as heroin? The article is a bizarre, non-scientific hit piece, against both Amway and GMO. It cites some studies that found problems with some GMO animals. That’s kind of like saying you shouldn’t eat strawberries (a man-made hybrid fruit) because breading a donkey and a horse will give you an infertile mule. Just plain silly.

But it gets sillier. The article says, about Amway protein powder …

“people really feel better to take the Nutrilite protein powder but feel not as good as before if stop taking it”

… and claim this is evidence the product is addictive and creates dependence like heroin! Right. So if I give a badly dehydrated person water … they’ll feel better. If I stop it and let them get badly dehydrated again, they’ll feel even worse.

Bad water! Bad bad water!

The article has obviously been written or sourced from an Amway competitor, and there’s a big clue to this when we go back to the discussion on GMO –

“Industry insiders said that the Amway Nutrilite protein powder sold in China contains protein from GM soybeans grown in the United States.”

“Industry insiders” huh? That’s code for “competitors”. Still, I was interested if Amway was using GMO so I started googling around, and I found several documents of interest. One was the All Plant Protein Powder FAQ, produced by ” TECHNICAL REGULATORY SERVICES, Access Business Group, South Africa”. Access Business Group (ABG), a part of Alticor, is responsible for manufacturing Amway products. The FAQ says –

42. How do we verify that we use non-genetically modified soybeans?

We follow the European Union standard for providing non-genetically modified ingredients. The supplier of our soy protein isolate has a
stringent quality control system in place to ensure they provide us with non-genetically soybeans. We also ensure this requirement is being
met by using a test known as polymerase chain reaction, or PCR testing. This advanced methodology can test for the presence of genetically
modified DNA.

This makes it pretty clear this product has no GMO. But is it perhaps different in different markets? I also found, from the same group at ABG, an FAQ on Nutrilite and Organic Farming –

22. Do Nutrilite farms utilize GMOs or GMMs?
Nutrilite has a long tradition of using organic farm practices on its farms. This policy includes using only traditional
farming methods and natural methods to control insects and prevent crop disease, and has been extended to preclude
the growing of GMO and GMM plants on any Nutrilite farming operation. It reflects Nutrilite’s commitment to providing
customers with products that address all of their concerns

So, Nutrilite farms don’t use GMO/GMM and in Europe/South Africa at least, they follow EU standards for suppliers. The final nail in the coffin for the People’s Daily claim is this, the Nutrilite Global GMO Policy, which states –

All ingredients for Amway core branded products (Nutrilite, Positrim) will be non-GMO or IP with a recombinant DNA threshold of 0.9% with the exception of
flavors, and subcomponents with no function or presence in the final formula.

So there you go. With some minor exceptions, Amway and Nutrilite don’t use GMO ingredients.

The magazine highlights four energy bars for “when you need an extra shot of energy to keep going on a long ride or run”. The four are Honey Stinger Waffles, Iron Girl Energy Bar, Nutrilite Energy Bar, and Clif Bar. All four are given glowing reviews, which is great for Nutrilite. So where’s the problem? There’s two. First is this –

You have to do the math, but that puts the Nutrilite Energy Bar at $2.33/bar – nearly 70% more expensive than the next most expensive bar, and 135% more expensive than the cheapest!

If you were a triathlete, would you check out the Nutrilite bar first or last? Now, I’ve learned a lot over the year about The Nutrilite Difference, and often even though a Nutrilite product may be more expensive, it may be a significantly better product and better value. We don’t have Nutrilite Energy Bars where I live and so I’ve never tried them and don’t know much about them. So I went to Amway.com to learn more. And that’s where the second problem came up –
Hopefully it will change soon, but right now two of the three flavours, indeed the two that were mentioned by Triathlete Magazine, aren’t even available! Hello? Even if you can’t help when Triathlete magazine promotes something, why on earth would you be promoting a product on Facebook that people can’t even order? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to wait until the products were in stock?

In any case, I went to amway.com to see if I could learn more about these bars and if there was any information to help a consumer make the decision to purchase these over the other three bars, or indeed for an IBO to market these products against competitors. Unfortunately, under “competitive info” I found only some nutritional comparisons with Power Bar. Reading through the rest of the info the only thing that stood out was “Exclusive NUTRILITE® C-Lenium Blend provides antioxidant protection from harmful free radicals generated by intense exercise”.

Was that the Nutrilite Difference? I don’t know. It sounds good – but is it worth paying more than double the price compared to an Iron Girl energy bar? I don’t know that either. If anyone from Nutrilite or Amway, or an IBO, can help explain it, I’d love more information. What I do know is that it’s unlikely that many triathletes are going to be turned on to Nutrilite by this review. All the information they get is from the magazine, and then the Nutrilite Health and Amway websites. That tells them these products are expensive, and out of stock.

Is that what you want from being highlighted in a magazine?

UPDATE: Even worse, anyone checking out this product after September 2 (two days from now), will see another price – $22.65 for a box of 9, or $2.52/bar. So a potential customer checking out the product is going to get yet another “sticker shock”. Unless there’s something incredibly special about this product – and if there is, both IBOs and customers need to be educated about it, the only way I can see this being successfully marketed to customers is by IBOs putting big discounts on the suggested retail price. Even at base IBO price the bars are still significantly more expensive than the competitors. At least though they’d be marketable. Is Amway US slipping back to the old habit of targeting product pricing at IBOs instead of customers?

Amway North America announced today that it has signed NFL and Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner to a multi-year endorsement agreement to represent NUTRILITE® exclusively from Amway – the world’s leading brand of vitamin, mineral and dietary supplements.

“The people at Amway share the same business philosophies and family values that I apply to my professional and personal life,” said Warner. “So, in that sense, it was really easy to see why I should partner with the NUTRILITE brand together in an effort to educate consumers on the benefits of proper nutrition and help Amway’s Independent Business Owners maximize their opportunities.”

The agreement marks the first time in the NUTRILITE brand’s 76-year history that Amway has enlisted a professional football player to endorse its brands. Warner will represent the entire NUTRILITE product line, including vitamins, minerals, dietary supplements, as well as weight management, sports and energy products, protein bars and sports drinks.

“Kurt‘s life is a true American success story, and in many ways, parallels the experiences of our Independent Business Owners, many of whom have persevered to overcome obstacles to achieve success,” says Jori Hartwig, Vice President of Marketing for Amway North America. “Even after retiring from football, he continues to inspire those who lead an active lifestyle and strive to achieve optimal health, while devoting oneself to family and community.”

Along with the market, where they’re giving away hundreds of fruits & vegetables to passersby, Nutrilite has launched a new website at http://www.nutrilite.com/color promoting the need to get a wide spectrum of different phytonutrients in your diet. Why color? Well, it’s known that the different colors in fruit and vegetables are a sign of the different plant substances, or phytonutrients, that exist in the plants. Purple colors, like resveratrol in grapes is known to have strong cardiovascular benefits. The red lycopene in tomatoes helps with DNA health.

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Thanks for visiting! This site is my personal opinions about the Amway company. I've been researching, blogging and commenting on Amway and Multilevel Marketing for more than a decade.
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